Ctn: I haven't heard the 6100SA yet. I'm not even sure whether it's already available in Germany. Do you know whether it's class b or a? But it's a pity that the PM8000 is so expensive in Oz.

Greetings from SF!

Manfred / Lini

P.S.: Well, I don't really know about the situation. It seems to calm down a little, but I guess it's not over yet - as definite knowledge (number & identity) about the victims will slowly spread now. So I'd think there will be a lot more grief and pain - and hatred against the terrorists.

Ctn: Interesting - but I'm sure I haven't seen this unit in Germany, yet. And I'm not sure if I ever will, because it looks just like the PM8200, which is the "successor" of the PM8000 at home in Germany (and weighs 4 kg less; apparently comes without class a mode as well - glad, I've got the "big iron" in time... )). Anyway, I'm sure it's a good amp following the Marantz tradition. It has even got WBT speaker terminals as it seems...

Ctn: WBT is a German manufacturer of high quality connectors - their speaker terminals are among the best on the market. But I'm a little suprised that Maratz doesn't use gold jacks on this unit. But maybe they use a palladium plating instead, which would be equally good.

Btw, what most people don't know is that most gold connectors on the market also have a nickel layer beneath. This is necessary, because a thin gold layer would just diffuse into the metal below because of the current - it's not necessary for comparatively thick gold layers, though.

Ctn: Yeah, I really trust in the PM8000's twelve Kilograms. And you can trust me, that these were hard to carry... Especially two of them. Together with some two CD6000OSEs. And some JM Lab speakers... Plus cables... I'll never be the same man... It was like then, when we were children and had to walk 1 mile to school through 5 foot deep snow and there was nothing to eat and.... (I'm just trying to train for when I'll once be 70 years old and want to fool my grandchildren with some stories I make up - starting with something true and then adding one cliché after the other... Sorry, this was a distraction I just had to follow... ))

Well, in fact, yes - I think Marantz is one of the amp makers besides NAD and Rotel, where you get most audiophile bang for reasonable buck.